Continued from page 1
Note: Global Color and Font changes don’t affect existing text. If you type your first article in Verdana and then make Arial your Global Font, guess what, your first article is still in Verdana. To save yourself a huge headache, set
colors and fonts BEFORE you enter your content.
When entering article text, Control-A, Control-C and Control-V are your best friends.
God willing, you already know that these keys stand for Highlight All, Copy and Paste. This is quickest way to transfer an entire body of text from one file or program to another. Open original file containing your article, hit Control-A and Control-C keys in succession. Your text will be highlighted, and then stored in your computer’s memory. Now go to Paragraph 1 of your Contant Contact Article template, and do a Control-V. The entire article will flow into box. Use your down-arrow key to move down article body and insert html paragraph breaks between each paragraph. Use your Preview screen to make sure everything’s lining up.
"But wait!" you say. "Constant Contact’s article format shows one box per paragraph. That means they want me to copy each paragraph at a time into each box." Pah! Constant Contact doesn't care how you create your newsletter. They just want you to sign up for their software. If you really want to, you can copy in each paragraph at a time, but I wouldn't recommend it. Just fill in those paragraph breaks, and pain of creating a newsletter will be over before you know it.
Add images by uploading photos to your website and then pasting URL into Constant Contact format.
This is an arduous process, and you may not care enough to include pictures, but I like my newsletter to look jazzy, so I use them. You can search for royalty-free images on www.picturequest.com, or you can get photos from another source if you have one. Select images that pertain to your content. For example, I found a picture of a turtle to use with an article about Slow Days at Work. It’s up to you how much time you spend on aesthetics of your emailed newsletter, but I for one appreciate a quality presention so I would say, go all out!
Use Quicklinks as an opportunity for free advertising.
Once again, I recommend deviating from newsletter template. You can link to anything you want here; a selection of product you sell, writing or design samples of your website, or even website of a friend or business partner.
Don’t create a brand new newsletter campaign from scratch each time you want to mail your subscribers.
The “Copy Campaign” button is an incredibly handy tool that duplicates a newsletter you’ve already completed and sent. All you have to do is change name of campaign, and replace former articles, headlines and photos with new ones. So if you had some trouble getting your first newsletter in order, breathe easy. You’ll never have to worry about it again. Just take care to update all of information so you don’t accidently send dupes of articles you ran last month!
Constant Contact is a bit tricky at first, but with a little patience, you, too can have your own email newsletter up and running in no time.
Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.
Dina Giolitto is a New-Jersey based Copywriting Consultant with nine years' industry experience. Her current focus is web content and web marketing for a multitude of products and services although the bulk of her experience lies in retail for big-name companies like Toys"R"Us. Visit http://www.wordfeeder.com for rates and samples.
